Shadowsworn
by Lystric
Summary: Years before her birth, a priestess was prophesied to bring Light to a war-torn world. Instead, she is seduced by the shadows and leaves her family with doubt to whether the prophesy was ever intended for her.


Conformity is not a task that can be done effortlessly. There are rules you must follow, guidelines you should consider, and above all, people to satisfy. It is forced down on you, and you are expected to do as you are told or face the consequences.

What are these consequences, exactly? Guilt, loneliness, perhaps being thrown out of society all together? Those all seem pretty extreme, but it's the bittersweet truth. One must either be like everyone else, or be an outcast.

Sometimes, it's just easier to do what is anticipated of them.

I for one, am not one of those people.

You see, before my birth, I was prophesied. It was told a woman with hair blacker than night would be born and could bring salvation to a broken world. I was destined to bring light to even the most desolate corners of this planet. They said my heart was Azeroth's heart... If mine shattered, there would be another Sundering. If it fell in love, we could all find peace in one another and live happily ever after.

What happens, though, when not everything goes according to plan?

Instead of being this holy child my parents were expecting to raise and cherish, I was one of those weird little kids who would use their smite on the ants on the walkways, or who would collect bugs poisonous enough to kill a devilsaur, or perhaps gather the remains of dead animals and make them into puppets... I didn't have much friends.

All these things, and the many more things I did that were considered blasphemous, were the first signals my parents got that perhaps I wasn't the right kid. Maybe the prophesy was for another black haired child. And so, they had another. That one had brown hair. They tried again. White hair. And again. White hair. And _again_. More white hair.

At this point, my mom had delivered six children: My oldest brother, Timity, myself, Estienne, my younger sister Evagria, my other sister Breen, my second youngest sister, Gilla, and the youngest sister, Abeth. I'm pretty sure my mother was unwilling to have any more, and accepted the fact I was the only one that would have black hair. It must be me then, right?

My father still had his doubts.

My family's blood runs as holy as it possibly could. My mother is a priestess, my father a paladin, and all of my siblings, including myself but excluding Timity and Evagria, are also priests. The other two followed in my father's footsteps and were called by the holy sword. I for one also wanted to become a warrior of the Light, but I was forbidden to. My parents told me I was to be a priestess and that would be that. I was heartbroken, but as a young blood elf, I could do nothing more than listen to my parents, for their word was law.

I slowly watched as one by one, my siblings flew the coop. The youngest, Abeth was the last to leave, but yet I was still kept at home. Upon asking why it was so, my mother told me I must help her and father with the family business.

We owned a small herb shop near Murder Row and even with the little to no business we received every day, I was somehow required to stay there and help.

The shop's daily intake could have increased tenfold and my parents would have still been able to keep the place in order. So why was I there?

I soon figured out about the prophesy. I had managed to coax it out of my mother one evening as we sorted herbs.

"Mother, why can't I leave? Everyone, from Timity to Abeth have gone off to training, but I'm still here! I am the second born child, shouldn't I have left years ago?"

My mother stopped what she had been doing and looked me in the eye. I will never forget the raw look of shame that glinted in those emerald orbs when she spoke.

"You were destined to be a priestess of the Light, much like myself. We waited years for you to acquire your skills and fill the duty you were given to do by the gods. We spent our life savings on your training but yet you kept reverting to the shadows... I had four children after you because I assumed you were the wrong one in question. You weren't." She was quick to turn her cold glare back to the plants she sorted.

I had widened my eyes in horror. _Me, destined for the Light?_ Not once had I ever received some divine calling all the other children of the Light spoke about. No rays of light, no fiery tomes, no angels appearing in the night. All I ever heard were faint whispers and screams inside my head, the calls of terror that dripped with evil.

"Why am I here, then?" I asked again, my voice trembling.

"Your father wants to keep you safe. We can't let you embrace your shadows."

I was in utter disbelief. All these years, they tricked me into staying behind while my younger kin left home, because they said I needed to help them with the herb shop, but really it was so they could keep me from _myself_?

It was at that moment I left. I simply dropped the bloodthistle root I had crushed to ashes in my clenched fist, and left. I can't remember if my mother called out to me or not. All I heard were the angry whispers and screams that kept me awake at night. They beckoned me, and I followed.

They led me to Murder Row.

The place was notorious for the bad shit that went down there. I myself, had never been there, but the descriptions were more than accurate as I looked around.

Criminals and petty thieves alike squatted in the small, long abandoned houses along the small strip of road. Overgrown and gnarled, twisted trees stood tall and dead, giving off creepy vibes. The bushes that normally lined the roads were barren and ashen in colour. It was as dark as hell itself, and the temperature was dramatically lower than the surrounding areas. Perhaps it was because the sun no longer shown there.

I felt more alive than I ever did in my entire existence as I stood in the shadows. The voices got louder, the screaming more intense. I was in a trance as I made my way to the darkest corner of the alleyway. Eventually, it was full-out deafening. The sound of my own blood pounding in my ears added to the mixture of shouting and shrieking. Time itself seemed to wither and stop completely as I stepped into the darkness.

Then all was quiet.

Only the sound of my shaky breathing could be heard. I couldn't see a thing, it was so dark. I wondered then if I had died. Were those symptoms of a heart attack I had been experiencing? I wouldn't even be able to pump my own chest!

Eventually, my body began to thaw out once more. My limbs moved on my own accord now, and I slowly stood up. I had to use the building I stood behind as support as my knees shook. Finally, I was able to stand on my feet, wobbling, but standing nonetheless. I accumulated a few deep breaths, and decided I should head back home. The longer I was out, the angrier my parents would be, and the more severe my punishment would be.

The streets were just as deserted as they were when I arrived. Or so, I thought.

In the span of a single second, my back was brushed against someone's chest, I was off my feet in a vice much like that of a snake's, there was a gloved hand over my mouth, and a knife to my throat.

After the initial shock wore off, I thrashed violently in the perpetrator's grasp. Judging from the arm muscles, the height, and the wide chest and shoulders that dug into my back, it was safe to assume I has been being held by a man. I shivered in disgust as his hot breath rolled down my neck.

"Now, sweetheart, give me whatever gold and jewelry you have on you, and I'll let you go in _almost_ one piece." Not caring for his faked gruff, mockingly sweet voice, I instead bit down as hard as I could onto his leather-covered finger. He emitted a girly shriek and stupidly let me go. My body hit the cobblestone and skittered a few metres away. _Amateur,_ I thought bitterly.

I turned my entire body to face him. He was in casual black linen clothing, and a matching hood that, paired with his glowing elven eyes, created a sinister shadow that hid his entire face from my view. Frowning in anger, I got to my feet and stomped towards him, ripping off the mask that encased his true identity.

"Goran!?" I had screeched. He mirrored my surprise as he looked at me.

"Estienne?" He had asked, bewildered. I scowled, and cattily slapped him across the face.

"_Fool! _What are you doing, prancing around a place like this, acting like a delinquent?" He had shrunk back at my reprimand. "Are you such a dimwit that you've forgotten this place is patrolled by blood knights?"

Goran scratched the back of his neck nervously. "_Esti_," he whined pitifully. I rolled my eyes.

"You utter idiot! Must you always get yourself in some sort of trouble?" He sighed and looked down at the ground. Sure, I was being harsh, but it had to be done.

Goran had been my best friend since we were toddlers. He was my only friend, in fact. He was also one of those weird kids, but the only difference between him and I, was that he had other friends... and well, he didn't make puppets out of dead critters. Of course, I was extremely jealous, but he reassured me that he'd never let his friends out-friend me. I was always number one in his books.

The blood elf in front of me spoke, breaking me away from my thoughts. "What are you... doing over here, anyways?"

That made me stumble. What _had_ I been doing in Murder Row? I sighed. I never kept secrets from Goran.

"The voices... they led me here," I tried. He merely blinked.

"What were they saying?" In truth, I was never able to make out words. Well, there were words, but they were of a foreign tongue.

"I don't know. It's just as if my body led me here by itself."

Goran shrugged. "I kind of felt the same way." My shock must have made him rethink what he was saying, and he was quick to add more. "Robbing you wasn't in my schedule, though."

It was my turn to sigh.

A sudden shriek filled my head and I collapsed to my knees from the searing pain it left. I clasped my hands over my ears and assumed the fetal positions as more screams and yells filled my mind. My body convulsed and spasmed on the cold road.

I made out the shape of Goran hovering over me, absolute terror on his face, but my mind didn't register it at the moment. Instead, my knees were to my chest, my arms wrapped around my knees, as I kicked my feet against the road until my body was going around in a circle.

The weird spinning stopped as the convulsions returned. I felt my eyes roll back into my head, and my entire body felt as if it was on fire. I tasted death, I heard the moans of tortured souls, and could see nothing but blackness. It slowly, agonizingly slowly, trickled away until I was left with a tingly sensation from head to toe.

"E-esti?" Goran whispered. I opened my eyes, blinded by the light. It was odd, as the place was usually so dark you couldn't even look down and see your own feet as you walked through the deadly district.

As I looked at my best friend, a halo seemed to hover above his head. I narrowed my eyes, thinking I had truly gone mad. I rubbed them vigorously, and the halo seemed to have disappeared when my eyelids parted.

"What the fuck just happened?" Goran whispered in horror. I swallowed, my throat suddenly parched.

"To tell you the truth," I croaked, my heart still hammering in my chest, "I have no idea." Goran was still looking down at me in unhidden terror.

"Do you... feel any different?" He asked quietly. I scrunched up my face as I frowned.

"No?"

He sighed. "Are you okay to stand up? You _have _to see this." The urgency of his usually sarcastic tone worried me. I nimbly tried standing up, Goran there to help me. Unsatisfied by my slowness, he simply picked me up and hoisted me over his shoulder.

Goran made great haste. Looking around from my awkward position, I recognized the area. The shrubs and trees were trimmed into weird shapes, unlike the rest of the city. He was most likely taking me to his home.

He bounded up the few steps to his front door and nearly broke it down. Goran removed a hand from around me and fished into his pocket, fumbling to unlock the door. He cursed profusely during the entire ordeal.

I assumed the door had opened, as I was inside the dark home in an instant and my hair was nearly caught by the door as he slammed it shut up a foot.

Quickly placing me down on a sofa, he one by one lit the candles around the small room. As soon as he was pleased with the amount of lighting, he picked me back up and dragged me over to his seven foot tall mirror.

I locked eyes with my reflection and nearly fainted.

The noise that escaped from between my lips couldn't even be classified as mortal. My reflection was a _shadow_. Yes, a shadow. "What happened!?" I screamed, nearly falling to my knees.

Luckily, Goran was holding me still. "I don't know! It happened while you were thrashing around like a demon on the ground!"

The muscles in my body tightened as my heart skipped a beat.

"Oh, _deities!_" Goran gave me a confused look through the mirror. I moved myself so I was facing him. I looked him in the eye and searched his furiously. "It all makes sense now! The voices, the screams, the reason why my body went to Murder Row... _this_ was my calling!"

He swallowed. "So, what you're saying is-"

I choked on my own spit. "I am a shadow priestess."

Goran sat across from me in a chair. He kept clasping and unclasping his hands in his lap. The small action somehow annoyed me. "Can you stop?" I asked quietly, causing him to nearly fall out of his chair in shock.

"Sorry," he groaned. He closed his eyes and fell back in the cushion chair, head resting on the pillow attached to the top. He covered his face with his hands and groaned once more.

"You've been called to the shadows as a priestess, I've been called to the shadows as a rogue. What next? Desra becomes a necromancer?" Upon hearing her name, the small tabby cat looked up at her owner in confusion, her leg stretched in the air as she was in the middle of cleaning her back.

I sighed, my face also falling into my own hands. We probably looked pathetic, but neither of us cared. Abrupt fear filled me as I remembered where I was heading before Gor stopped me.

"What time is it?" I hissed standing up.

Gor frantically looked around for a pocketwatch. "Nearly 10pm." I slapped myself across the head with the heel of my palm.

"I have to go! Look, I'll talk to you tomorrow," I huffed as I rushed out his door.

I ran home. It never dawned on me what would happen when my parents saw me. All I was worried about was that they were going to chastise me for being home extremely late. Fumbling for my own key, exactly as Gor did over two hours prior, I opened the front door. Immediately, my mother rocketed up from her seat on the couch. As soon as she saw me, however, she proceeded to faint.

My father must have heard the racket as he lumbered in from the adjoined kitchen. The elegant teacup he held between his fingers was promptly on the ground, much like my mother was. For the first time in my life, I heard him swear.

"What the fuck happened?" He rushed to me, stepping over my mother and picking her up off the ground, and then continued to me. He gripped my shoulders and shook me like a doll.

"I don't know! I blacked out and woke up in Gor's house! He said he found me like this, laying on the street. He didn't even recognize me at first but couldn't leave me out there! I was out for over three hours, and as soon as I woke up he showed me what I turned into and I ran home."

Okay, maybe only part of my story was true, but so what? I wasn't about to tell my father I technically knew my body had led me to Murder Row to be transformed into some shadow creature. He looked me dead in the eyes.

"We are going to go see High Priest Aldrae _right now."_

* * *

**If you're reading Bowing to Fate, you've probably already met Esti and Goran. Chapter 5 is coming out soon, and I thought I'd quickly write this before it does, because it's going to contain a lot of information about her AND Gor that won't all be covered in the other story. It's a lot longer than I planned for it to be, but I tell myself in the long run, it'll be necessary. There should be one more chapter and that's it for this.**

**I plan on writing short stories for all my WoW characters (excluding Fayne, as she is purely a story character, and well she's going to have 3 fanfics written about her and her life anyways) and Estienne's is coming at a perfect time. She's technically the second one I've written about, but the first to actually be published.**


End file.
